Games don't work? Check the drivers!

We all like to play games on our computers. Some people play them every day, a few hours per day, while some only play once a week or so. Regardless of how much time we spend playing them, games are fun. To play them all we need to do is install and run. However, sometimes the game will simply fail to start and throw an error. In other cases it might start but freeze or crash. This makes our gaming experience very unpleasant doesn’t it?

There are 3 main causes for game crashes/freezes:

The game requires more resources than your computer has. You need to buy a more powerful system or upgrade it

The game has bugs or the installation failed at some point. Reinstall the game to make sure it is done properly

Your hardware drivers are old, outdated, or even missing

The first two cases are fairly easy to solve. But for the third case, you need to check the hardware drivers, make sure they are properly installed and updated. To do this, right click on My Computer, select Properties, go to the Hardware tab, and click Device Manager. You will see a list of all your hardware drivers, their name, and status. If any of these devices has an exclamation mark near it, there is a problem. Check if the hardware device is in use. If it is, then the drivers are missing or too old.

Go to the manufacturer’s website and search for the latest drivers using the information found in the Device Manager window. Once you find the latest drivers, download and install them. The exclamation mark should disappear. Download and install drivers for all the marked hardware devices. The game should work just fine now.

If it still does not work, then you should update all your drivers. Right click on My Computer, select Properties, go to the Hardware tab, and click Device Manager. For every hardware device you find, search for the latest driver on the manufacturer’s website. Download and install the drivers for each one. Make sure you restart your system after each install to prevent errors or file corruption. The game should now work perfectly!

Now, let’s see what happens. First, the game asks the system for some resources. It communicates with the hardware through the hardware drivers. If the drivers are old or missing, communication fails, and the game throws an error message and closes or even freezes. Now, with the latest hardware drivers installed, the game can properly communicate with the hardware and it can work smoothly. If the display adapter did not have its driver installed, it was very clear why a game could not run. The display adapter is the first device you should check. Remember to always keep your drivers updated! It only takes 5 minutes for each, but it keeps your system running at its maximum performance.

Other related tutorials:

Check out some of these related tutorials and articles to learn more about updating your computer's drivers.